Inside the main hall of R’lyeh, the underwater city deep beneath the ocean…
Morty was still growing and already shorter than his older sister, never mind Rick, who was even taller than she was.
But Rick was not the one making him feel short right now.
It was the freak show filling the entire hall.
There were giant octopuses, the Great Toad, enormous bats, and even creatures that looked like random animals stitched together.
Not one of them looked alike, and the shortest still stood dozens of meters tall.
There were so many that Morty could have opened a Cthulhu Mythos monster zoo and charged admission.
As a member of the Great Old Ones faction, Cthulhu had called in quite a few of his buddies from the same camp for a group discussion.
The topic was how to sever their connection to the child inside Cthylla’s womb.
Morty figured they were probably screwed.
After all, Rick from this world was the one behind it.
Morty had already learned from the Rick standing beside him what it meant to face someone who simply could not be beaten.
So these monsters were destined to waste their time.
Rick clearly thought the same thing.
After the trip from the surface down to the ocean floor, he had grown so bored that he finally could not take it anymore.
“Morty, I know this is your adventure, but how about we do something big?”
Whenever Rick suggested doing “something big,” it usually involved blinding light pollution and toxic fumes from burning chemicals.
But Morty was tempted.
He felt like he was wasting his time too.
Instead of sitting around watching these Cthulhu Mythos creatures, whose lives consisted of sleeping and pulling the whole “when I wake, the world trembles” routine, rack their brains over something impossible, he might as well take action himself.
It was better to stir up the snake than crouch in the grass waiting for it to show itself.
Besides, this was not some impulsive decision.
By now, the whole situation was perfectly clear.
Cthulhu-Rick had some grand plan.
He was trying to breed an utterly disgusting monster inside Cthylla’s womb while using soul chains to tie all the Great Old Ones to the same fate.
And judging by Rick’s attitude, even if every Cthulhu Mythos creature on the battlefield died, it would still be worth it as long as they dealt with the child in Cthylla’s womb.
“So what do we do?”
Morty had followed Rick into a corner of the main hall.
He rubbed his hands together excitedly, clearly expecting Rick to tear the place apart.
Then Rick pulled the same stunt as before.
Morty nearly coughed up blood from sheer frustration.
“This is your adventure.
Shouldn’t you use your own damn brain?”
“When I took you on adventures, did I ever make you build me a pair of Grappling Shoes on the spot, or fight a hundred thousand Gromflomites by yourself?”
“Unless I offer to help, the next time you ask me for help, our adventure agreement is over!”
Morty snapped, “Fuck you, you miserable old bastard!”
After getting that out of his system, Morty suppressed his anger and fell into thought.
When he finally finished thinking, he raised the Book of Eibon in his right hand.
The reason this grimoire was considered one of the divine artifacts of the Cthulhu Dimension was naturally because it was packed with spells and incantations.
Beyond that, the book itself had been made from extremely unusual materials.
Otherwise, given the Cthulhu Dimension’s history, where even the comparatively recent era stretched back hundreds of millions of years, there was no way the book could have survived intact for so long.
So…
Take pictures of every page with his phone.
Then set the book on fire!
Seeing his idiot grandson preparing to burn the book and provoke Cthulhu-Rick, who might be hiding somewhere and watching everything, Rick seemed almost embarrassed.
“Morty, you…”
Before he could finish, the entire underwater city suddenly shook.
A deep rumble rolled through the city, as though some ancient creature buried underground was trying to wake from its endless slumber.
The Great Old Ones, who had been arguing heatedly moments before, all fell silent.
Their bizarre eyes turned toward the entrance of the hall.
But almost immediately, as though sensing something, every one of them shifted their attention to Morty.
Morty was hiding behind a stone pillar in the main hall.
At that moment, the seawater behind him seemed to freeze solid.
His heart tightened.
With his neck stiff from tension, he slowly turned around.
The Great Old Ones wore expressions of overwhelming “kindness.” They left Cthulhu to say what they were all thinking.
Pushed to the front, Cthulhu tried to keep his voice calm.
“Morty, in our world, certain objects can form connections with certain individuals.”
“Burning that book won’t harm us.”
“But because we’re all gathered here, the energy released when the book burns will be enough to destroy this entire city.”
“So…”
As Morty listened to Cthulhu’s explanation, the doubts in his mind kept growing.
He could not remember exactly when he had first become suspicious.
But between Rick egging him on earlier and Cthulhu’s explanation now, Morty had officially begun to question this entire adventure.
Because it was way too weird.
Everyone knew Rick’s personality.
He did not give a damn about anything.
Sure, he eventually started caring about a few things, but the Rick standing here right now did not care about shit.
So why had his attitude changed so completely?
Cthulhu’s behavior was even stranger.
He was supposed to be the face of the entire Cthulhu Mythos, yet he did not have even a shred of aloof dignity.
Whenever Morty asked him a question, he patiently explained everything in careful detail.
He was basically an NPC.
Then there was the time Morty’s IQ had been reduced by seventy percent because of the Mega Fruit.
Over those three days, Morty had probably said Cthulhu’s name hundreds of times.
Yet the guy who had supposedly crossed into another universe to kill him and Rick had never once appeared.
[This has to be some kind of setup…]
Now fully convinced that he had walked into a trap, Morty stared suspiciously at the Cthulhu Mythos creatures before him.
These were supposed to be mighty Great Old Ones, yet the moment Morty fell silent, every one of them stopped talking.
None of them even made the slightest movement.
When my sister talks to me, she starts yelling if I take one second too long to answer.
Are you Cthulhu freaks really this patient?
Morty looked over at Rick again.
Rick stood with his arms crossed.
He had not taken a drink in at least half an hour, and he looked unusually alert.
Morty asked in a low voice, “Rick, tell me the truth.
This whole so-called adventure was a setup you planned from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
“How else could all four members of Cthulhu’s family cross the universe to find us, but somehow fail to find our house?”
“And what about that cabin?
I did one tiny favor for an AI Cthulhu-Rick, and he handed me two divine artifacts.”
“Then every time I asked you for a little help, you immediately reminded me that this was my adventure and told me to handle it myself.”
“But whenever things hit a dead end, you stepped in from the sidelines to keep everything moving.”
“So you planned this entire thing from the very beginning, didn’t you?”
As Morty slowly laid out his reasoning, the permanent scowl on Rick’s face gradually gave way to surprise.
“That’s Jerry’s son for you!”
“You little rascal!”
“I always knew you were a smart kid!”